Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government is reportedly set to announce plans to cut the number of Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25 and redraw the city's ward boundaries. (Tijana Martin/Canadian Press)

Ontario's new government is reportedly planning to redraw the City of Toronto's ward boundaries and cut the number of city councillors from 47 to 25.

Premier Doug Ford is expected to announce the plan on Friday, the Toronto Star reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources within the Progressive Conservative government.

The reported move comes after Toronto city council was officially expanded to 47 wards from 44 in time for October's municipal elections, as recommended in an independent consultant's report.

Cutting the size of council would likely necessitate changes to the province's Municipal Elections Act, which could have an impact on communities throughout Ontario.

The Star's report comes on the eve of a deadline for candidates to register for the municipal election on Oct. 22.

Ford has scheduled a news conference for Friday morning, just hours before the 2 p.m. ET deadline.

Swift reaction from councillors

Councillors in favour and against were both quick to respond to the news.

Some, like Coun. Gord Perks, warned it could throw this October's municipal election into chaos.

Others, including ​Coun. Jim Karygiannis, who has previously called for municipal boundaries to be aligned with federal ones, were in support.

"Hell yeah, bring it on. Bring it on," he said when he was reached by phone on Thursday.

'Horrible disrespect'

Perks points out the boundaries of the current wards were the result of years of consultations that heard from thousands of Torontonians. It also recently prevailed despite being challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and in court.

Ignoring all of that, Perks said, shows "horrible disrespect" to local democracy.

"Doug Ford doesn't care about the people of Toronto, or the courts," he told CBC Toronto.

"If Doug Ford wanted to be the mayor of Toronto he should have done that."

Ford had planned to run against Mayor John Tory, but bowed out to successfully run for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party before becoming premier.

He was a city councillor representing Ward 2, Etobicoke North, from 2010 to 2014 while his brother, the late Rob Ford, was mayor.

Ford, who also tangled on a wide range of issues with Perks and other members of council while mayor Ford battled a series of high-profile scandals, often advocated cutting council in half, saying it would save taxpayers a large amount of money.

But there won't be dramatic savings for local taxpayers. The 2018 operating budget for Toronto city councillors is $23 million — which makes up a tiny percentage of the city's $13 billion total operating budget.

Other shakeups?

Perks said he believes Ford wants these changes to take hold before the Oct. 22 election, but it's unclear if that would even be possible given the complexity of the election process. Hundreds of people have already declared their candidacies.

Perks said changing the Municipal Elections Act would have to go through the Ontario Legislature and could result in a shakeup in other Ontario municipalities.

Perks refused to speculate on whether the new PC government would support the move, but suggested Ford shouldn't even try.

"He's got a province to run, he should focus on that," Perks said.

Other councillors have also spoken out.

Coun. Josh Matlow called it "anti-democratic" and "reckless" and said such changes would cancel an election process that's already started.

Coun. Janet Davis tweeted that it "is a gross misuse of power."

Councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam and Joe Cressy also spoke out on Twitter.

Wong-Tam told CBC Toronto called the plan "extremely anti-democratic" and described it "as a takeover of Toronto."

"This greater concentration of power does not give and deliver better government," she said. "He will speak in populist platitudes about saving taxpayer dollars, but it's going to come at the cost of the erosion of the democratic process."

Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam called the reported plan 'extremely anti-democratic' and described it 'as a takeover of Toronto.' (CBC)

The councillor said she felt Ford's reported move was "an affront on our local democracy" and added that it would not bring Toronto closer together.

"It's going to make things worse for our city," she said. "This is a form of amalgamation, which we already lived through in 1996."

Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath also slammed news of Ford's reported decision in a statement.

"It appears that Doug Ford cooked up a backroom plot to use his new power to meddle in municipal elections. He didn't campaign on it. He didn't consult people on it," Horwath said.

"It's clear that Mr. Ford wants a smaller number of councillors to have more power, fewer checks and balances, and less accountability. This is obviously a move to make it easier for the premier to control Toronto City Hall."

Some councillors support change

But the purported plan has also drawn support from some councillors. ​

Karygiannis suggested the only councillors concerned with the change are those aligned with the NDP, or those afraid of losing their seats. (Despite council having no party affiliations, many councillors picked sides in the June provincial election.)

Coun. Jim Karygiannis, who has previously called for municipal boundaries to be aligned with federal ones, was ecstatic about the reported move by Premier Ford. (Tina Mackenzie/CBC News)

He also downplayed concerns this would mean less representation for those living in growing downtown wards, suggesting there's no problem dealing with more constituent demands.

Coun. Justin Di Ciano thanked the premier on Twitter and said changing the wards "makes sense for so many reasons." Di Ciano also responded to critics on Twitter.

Mayor John Tory has yet to officially react to the report, but his office released a statement Thursday night saying Tory will "be making a major statement to reporters Friday morning at City Hall."

Ford to cancel regional chair elections, report says

The Star also reported that the Ford government will cancel planned elections for regional chair positions in two Greater Toronto Area communities — Peel Region and York Region.

That move would put a damper on the political redemption hopes of Patrick Brown, whom Ford replaced as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

Ontario’s premier plans to make the change before the October election, and cancel the upcoming elections of regional chairs in Peel and York, the Star has learned.

News 09:54 PM by Robert Benzie Toronto Star|

Premier Doug Ford plans to table legislation as early as Monday that will cut the number of Toronto councillors to 25 for the fall election. “This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on (Toronto) council,” said a senior government official. - Andrew Francis Wallace , Toronto Star

Premier Doug Ford is slashing the size of Toronto city council almost in half before the October election, the Toronto Star has learned.

In a stunning development, Ford is also cancelling planned regional chair elections in Peel and York, thwarting the ambitions of his political foe Patrick Brown, the former Progressive Conservative leader, as well as those of former Liberal cabinet minister Steven Del Duca.

Conservative sources said legislation will be tabled as early as Monday to cut Toronto council from a planned 47 councillors to 25, and ward boundaries would match federal and provincial ridings.

The surprise moves, which were never broached during last month's provincial election campaign, come as the deadline for candidates entering the Oct. 22 municipal election looms at 2 p.m. on Friday.

"This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on council," said a senior government official, referring to the one term Ford spent at Toronto City Hall between 2010 and 2014.

"Having too many people on council makes it hard to get things done," the source said, claiming the reduction in councillors should save $25 million. It's not clear where these savings would come from. By reducing council by 22 councillors, the city would eliminate nearly $9 million in salaries, office and staffing budgets.

There are no plans, however, to reduce the number of MPPs at the Legislature, which was expanded to 124 members from 107 in the June 7 election.

The overhaul of wards will wipe out a 2016 decision by Toronto council to redraw the city's boundaries, which increased the number of wards to 47 from 44 for the 2018 election. That was the result of a four-year review that determined the increase was essential for effective representation.

The city's clerk previously said any boundary changes would need to be in place before January of this year in order for her and staff to prepare for the October election.

Ford will detail his proposal on Friday morning at Queen's Park.

That's when he will announce that nominations for Toronto elections will be reopened until mid-September after the legislation passes in August.

Along with potentially creating council havoc for Toronto Mayor John Tory, who defeated Ford in the 2014 mayoral race, the premier appears to be taking aim at Brown and Del Duca, the frontrunners to win the chair jobs in York and Peel.

Brown stepped down as PC leader on Jan. 24 after CTV News broadcast a report alleging sexual impropriety with two women. He has denied any wrongdoing and is now suing CTV, which stands by its story, for $8 million.

Sources said Ford tried to find a high-profile candidate who could stop his predecessor from winning the Peel chair's job, but was unable to do so.

But another PC source insisted the premier is not being vindictive against Brown or Del Duca.

"We're putting a pause on those elections. There will be not be elected chairs of these regional governments," the source said, noting there will still be elected chairs in Halton and Durham.

"It will go back to what it was before the Liberals changed it in 2016 without any consultation," said the Tory insider, adding there is no need for another layer of elected politicians.

"From what I understand, the provincial government is looking to move forward with legislation to have regional chairs appointed, not elected," Crombie said in an email Thursday night.

"If that's the case, it will signal that mayors and local councils are being heard on this matter. In the past, I've have been quite vocal in my opposition to a regionally elected chair," she said.

"As you know, Mississauga is the third largest city in Ontario, and our council is perfectly capable of controlling our own destiny and working with the appointed regional chair to do so. In fact, in Peel, we voted 22-1 in 2017 against electing a regional chair."

The sweeping changes will require amendments to the City of Toronto Act, the Municipal Act, the Municipal Elections Act, and the Education Act, though there will be no change to the number of school board trustees being elected this fall.

Still, the government is bracing for legal challenges since candidates have been campaigning for three months and have paid to hire staff, rent office space, and buy advertising.

"I can't speculate on something like that," said Clark when asked about the changes.

While Ford has been a proponent of a "strong mayor" system, that will not be addressed in the legislative amendments.

What the smaller council and redrawn wards will mean for Toronto residents remains to be seen.

Council expanded to 47 after an independent consultant's nearly four-year review concluded that this was essential for effective representation, a priority set out in a Supreme Court decision that called for every vote to have equal weight, known as voter parity.

Today, the city's ward populations are not balanced, with some as small as 45,000 people and some as big as 97,000, according to 2016 census data.

As Toronto continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, there are concerns disparity will grow with it. This is especially true in high-growth areas of the city, such as the downtown core.

Council provided direction to the consultants to maintain an average ward population of 61,000. The recommended 47-ward option would achieve voter parity by the 2026 election, the consultants reported.

A challenge to the recommended option from Etobicoke Councillor Justin Di Ciano went to divisional court and was dismissed in March. The court upheld an earlier decision of the Ontario Municipal Board, which found a 47-ward structure achieved effective representation and that a 25-ward option preferred by Di Ciano did not achieve better voter parity for the 2018 election.

During their review, the consultants did consider an option consistent with federal and provincial riding boundaries and that would create 25 wards but "encountered challenges" trying to achieve voter parity, their report said.

Adding an extra ward downtown, for 26 wards, still left voter parity issues, specifically in Etobicoke.

There was also "little support" for that option at public meetings and among members of council, the consultants' report noted.

And shifting the boundaries to achieve voter parity would defeat the purpose of aligning with federal ridings, the consultants concluded.

Toronto mayor accuses premier of 'meddling' in coming election over plan to cut number of councillors

Ontario's newly elected Progressive Conservative government is unilaterally moving to cut the size of Toronto's city council by nearly half — a move that Mayor John Tory slammed as inappropriate "meddling" in municipal affairs.

Premier Doug Ford confirmed this morning that he would introduce legislation to reduce the number of councillors in Toronto from 47 to 25 to match federal and provincial riding boundaries. The government also plans to halt regional chair elections in Peel, York, Niagara and Muskoka.

"Now, more than ever, the City of Toronto needs to get some big things done," Ford said.

He said council has "failed to act on the critical issues facing the city," calling it the "most dysfunctional political arena" in the country.

"It will only get worse if Toronto city council grows from 44 to 47 politicians," Ford said. "People care about getting things done, they don't care about politicians."

When asked why he didn't include this plan in his campaign messaging during the provincial election, Ford said reducing the size of government in general was a core message of his run.

During his own morning news conference at city hall, Tory accused Ford of "meddling" with the city's affairs, and said the premier should not be interfering as hundreds of people have begun campaigning and fundraising for a vote that is fewer than three months away.

"You just don't change the rules in the middle of the game," said Tory.

He said the process by which the province has chosen to go about the move "is absolutely not right."

Tory then attacked Ford for ignoring his campaign promise to govern "for the people," noting nobody in Toronto had a chance to be heard about these apparent plans.

"Don't they deserve a say in how they're governed?" Tory asked.

He said specific details of the plan did not come up in any conversations he has had with Ford since the Progressive Conservatives formed government following the June election, with the exception of a "passing mention" of reducing council's size that Tory did not interpret as being a serious suggestion.

Ford, however, pushed back on Tory's assertion that the city was not given any forewarning of the province's intentions.

"I had a conversation with the mayor a week and a half, two weeks ago. I can tell you one thing, I didn't see this reaction when I gave him this idea, this proposal. To the contrary.

"Not only did we speak to him once, we consulted numerous times — our staff — and we never had this reaction … I'm not too sure where the mayor's going with this. He knows less politicians is good."

Some progressive councillors characterized Ford's move as an abuse of power and an attack on local democracy that would create chaos before the election, while other factions at city hall welcomed the idea as long overdue.

Tory was critical of the way the provincial government has chosen to go about its announcement. (Christopher Katsarov/Canadian Press)
Toronto recently completed a years-long consultation and review process that increased the number of wards from 44 to 47 for the upcoming vote. Tory signalled early on in the process that he did not, in fact, support an expansion in the number of councillors, but he accepted the outcome.

Tory said he will file a motion to hold a referendum on the question of reducing the size of city council in the form of a ballot question in the upcoming election.

Similarly, he added that he wants to get an objective legal opinion on what options the city has. That work will begin immediately. The mayor admitted, however, that the province does have "broad power" over the city.

The deadline to register as a candidate in the municipal election was Friday at 2 p.m. ET, but Ford said in the morning that deadline will be extended until September to accommodate the changes.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.4763890

Already the sides are drawn. Tory stands for more salaries for politicians, etc. Ford goes back to the old plans. Large groups are unwieldy and often unproductive. It isn't the case that the quality of the decisions gets better as there are more politicians involved. More likely -- gridlock on some policies, and nothing gets done.

Notice the use of the word "meddling" to associate Ford with those deplorable folks who got Trump elected over the votes of the decent people.

I think there is good sense in limiting the number of elected officials after a certain point. They don't really 'represent' much of the population anyway. When was the last time something in Toronto politics went from the bottom up? It's all top-down.

Decision-making groups work best if they are small. You want the major interests well represented, of course, but on the other hand, you want them to be able to act decisively on occasion. If the council is 44 members, you can be there are smaller groups that collaborate around some community interests. Probably 4 or 5 of them are active at any time.

But as long as these interests are represented, what good does it do to have double the number?

The harm it does is that it slows down decision-making hugely. They're politicians. Every one of them will 'want something' out of decisions. You know how it works. It will be a wrangle.

The Pareto distribution might well apply to city councils like this. That's a mathematically derived equation that essentially (in popular form) says that 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the people in the group. Management theorists also have another theory that in 'creative' groups, a similar proportion of the work is done by the square root of the number of people in the group.

In the fast-moving industries like Silicon Valley, they apply these principles religiously. They make small groups -- three to five, usually -- that form teams that 'cover' for each other and make sure they do what they do. It's often the boast that these places have no middle-management and the boss's door is always open.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford leaves following a meeting at City Hall in Toronto on Monday, July 23, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Kozak

TORONTO — Premier Doug Ford confirmed Friday morning that he will upend Toronto city hall by axing the number of seats on council from 47 to 25.

The move comes as Toronto is in the middle of an election campaign on a day when the names of candidates for council and mayor were to be set.

The move has prompted Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath to accuse Ford of acting like a “king.”

Ford did not campaign on the change during the June provincial election.

[READ MORE: Mayor slams Ford for meddling in Toronto election]

“No one has ever said to me ‘Doug, we need more politicians’ in fact it’s the opposite,” Ford told reporters. Adding that he thinks “the size of government is just too large, this is particularly true at the municipal level.”

But inefficiency at the municipal level seems to be only a problem in Toronto. Ford’s legislation the Better Local Government Act, to be tabled Monday, only targets the size of Toronto’s council.

Canada’s largest city with 2,731,571 people will now have almost the same number of councillors as Ottawa, a city with 934,243 people and 23 city councillors.

“Let’s not even compare Ottawa, it’s apples and oranges. Apples and oranges when you compare a town the size of Ottawa — a beautiful city — compared to a city the size of Toronto. You can’t even compare it. You’re looking at a city that’s going to be eventually three million people,” Ford said.

He didn’t explain why Ottawa and Toronto are apples and oranges but said it makes more sense to compare Toronto to Los Angeles which has even fewer councillors than the 25 that will represent Toronto.

Ford said the change will save Toronto $25.5 million over four years. The move puts Toronto’s municipal ward boundaries in line with the federal and provincial electoral boundaries.

The province’s bill will also end the election of regional chairs in Peel, Muskoka, York and Niagara. Those elected positions were only created in 2016 so this fall’s municipal elections were to be the first ones held with the new positions.

Notably former Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown was registered to run for the Peel chair. Former Liberal MPPs who were defeated in the June election were also running for the various chairs.

The Ford campaign team was very public about its dislike for Brown after the campaign and the premier has a thorny relationship with Toronto’s current mayor and Ford’s former rival for the mayor’s seat John Tory.

Asked if the province’s moves were motivated by a grudge against those people Ford, instead, slammed the current council.

“Nothing is getting done,” he said, “transit has not been built in 12 years.”

In December the city opened an extended subway line and construction of an LRT on Eglinton is well underway and the line is set to open in 2021.

Ford says the provincial election in which he promised to cut the size of government was all the consultation that he needed to make these changes.

Toronto Mayor John Tory slammed the move in an early morning press conference and said he would ask council to hold a referendum on the province’s move.

Ford was undeterred.

“I think we were pretty clear on the election when I talked to thousands and thousands of people, the referendum was pretty clear, our mandate was pretty clear, reduce the size and cost of government,” he said.

In an interview with CP24 Horwath accused Ford of “knee-capping” his former opponents and called the changes “unacceptable.”

Toronto city councillor Joe Mihevic posted a tweet calling the reported Ford plan a “destructive attack on local democracy” while fellow councillor Joe Cressy tweeted that Toronto’s residents “will suffer because of this back of a napkin plan.”

Councillor Janet Davis weighed in by calling the reported move “a gross misuse of power” while former Ontario premier Bob Rae labelled it “chaotic and disrespectful.”

One councillor, however, spoke in favour. George Mammoliti told a Toronto TV station that the city needs to start getting its fiscal house in order “and the way to do that is with a smaller city council.”

I didn't even realize that Los Angeles had only 24 councilors, I also learned today that Houston makes due with 11, San Francisco also has 11 Supervisors.

New York and Chicago both have 50x each, which is another fun fact!

The change is sudden, but this was Ford's opportunity to make a change he had been screaming about since his time on council as the next municipal election is in four years and three months.

If the media is hoping to drum up sympathy for the half of Toronto's grandstanding City Council spending the next few weeks in a knife fight with one another to try and secure one of the new wards to ultimately end up out of a job, I would say that it will likely be a fruitless exercise.

I will admit I was lukewarm on the Doug Ford Era, but this is warming me up to him.

There is also the possibllity that there will be more actual competition in municipal politics, which would be a good thing. A smaller number of better councillors would be a good thing, in terms of getting things done, all other things being equal.

I don't know the details very well, but Doug Ford has a lot of experience dealing with Toronto City Council, and I suspect that this is a priority item for him. He probably knows what he's talking about.

When Ford announced that Toronto Wards would be re-aligned to match their Provincial and Federal Counterparts, I got the screaming and yelling from the Toronto Star and from Toronto City Councilors I expected to occur.

While the "vindictive" and "attack on Democracy" lines are fun;
Where is the intellectual argument as to why the city is better served by 47 Councilors?

Toronto Proper had 16 Wards before it was merged with East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York in 1998 and a large part of the reason for the bloat was the combination of seven governments into one.

There was very little reason for the bloat that wasn't political, it just allowed a lot of high level bureaucrats to save their jobs after the merger.

Ford's argument is that the city has 25 MPs and 25MPPs that represent the city and matching those boundaries will reduce bureaucracy and save money

Cool;

What's the counterpoint to this?

Yeah, Ford is a this and a that but it would be nice if in the midst of all this name-calling someone could walk me through the other side of the argument? What will 47 accomplish that 25 will not and why?

I don't know the details very well, but Doug Ford has a lot of experience dealing with Toronto City Council, and I suspect that this is a priority item for him. He probably knows what he's talking about.

If he gets re-elected to a smaller council he will have an opportunity to show us if their is any substance behind the smile.

One of the dirty little secrets of politics is that the great dream embodied in Ontario Place was never realized. They imagined it to be a kind of Disneyland lite at one time. For a few years, they attracted crowds because there was some fine entertainment, either free or cheap. It's been a white elephant since it started.

I notice that the PCs in Ontario are going to issue their own news. which has (of course) enraged those posing as journalists.

I doubt that this is the universal answer, but it responds to the problem -- which is that the media, everywhere, has taken the other side. Harper responded to the problem but it was hardly a satisfactory answer.

Look at the job our 'journalists' are doing, getting to the bottom of the Danforth shooter's motives' for example, and you can see that they have a useful role to play, but they aren't playing it. Tbey'll print all the news that supports the notion that the shooter was not a 'jihadi. And nothing else ... not even his name ... until the PR guys are through with their copy.

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